


Modulation

by Lynse



Category: Danny Phantom, The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Bargaining, Comfort/Angst, Conversations, Crossover, Drug Use, Family, Gen, One Shot, POV Klaus Hargreeves, Past Character Death, Past Child Abuse, Support, Swearing, Time Travelling Danny Fenton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:40:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29344494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynse/pseuds/Lynse
Summary: Klaus doesn’t want to deal with another ghost, but this kid isn’t going away. For some reason, he wants Klaus to promise to help stop the apocalypse—and mean it. As if that matters to him when he’s already dead.
Comments: 33
Kudos: 249





	Modulation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scapolice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scapolice/gifts).



> A continuation of [this three sentence fic](https://ladylynse.tumblr.com/post/641872518471434241/hey-umbrella-academy-anon-my-brain-needed-a) posted on my tumblr. Set after _Run Boy Run_ and slowly edges off canon. Contains swearing, drug/drink use/mention, past child abuse mention.... It’s Klaus. His life’s been a little messed up, and he didn’t exactly have a great father.

“Why are you still here?” Klaus whined as he turned his head to look at the dead teenager who was holding up the wall of the alley beside him. “I should be too high for this shit.”

“Yeah, and I shouldn’t be yanked out of my timeline to make sure you help stop the apocalypse, but here we are.”

Klaus groaned and turned to look at Ben, who was sitting on his other side. “Why is he still here?”

“Not for the same reason I’m here,” Ben said, unhelpful as always. “You could just talk to him.”

Ugh. That would completely defeat the purpose of not talking to him. Talking to the dead just encouraged them, and all Klaus was trying to do was live his own life.

Like, okay, fine. Since the kid had started following him…whenever that was, sometime after Five had fucked off and stiffed him the twenty he’d promised, the kid hadn’t said a whole lot. At least, not once he’d realized that Klaus was determined to ignore him. He’d made his pitch, the apocalypse is real, blah blah blah, it needs to be stopped, yada yada, the whole bit.

Then he’d finally realized that Klaus hadn’t been smoking a regular cigarette, and he’d gone. It had been great. That’s what was supposed to happen.

But then the freaking kid had come back.

With a _lecture_.

Klaus had ignored most of it, but the kid had said something about sobering up, and Ben—the traitor—had agreed. Not that Klaus expected anything else from Ben at this point, but _god_ , he didn’t want to have to deal with this.

He didn’t even have the money for cheap vodka to fill up his flask right now. He’d have to steal something else to pawn off first, and that took work, especially with Luther and Pogo watching him every time he stepped foot inside.

Klaus shut his eyes and let out a loud, overly exaggerated sigh, but he knew that the ghost wasn’t going to conveniently vanish. Which was unfair. Why couldn’t this kid play by the rules and leave him alone? He shouldn’t be able to see him in this state.

Granted, while Klaus had no idea how long it had been, he knew he was coming down from it now. He’d need something else. More to drink, maybe. Better stuff than the last bottle he’d bought. Or he could scour the house and find out where the rest of Dad’s stuff had been hidden—something he suspected Luther was behind, and Luther had never been great at hiding stuff, so if he hadn’t recruited help, it shouldn’t be too hard to find. Klaus had another joint he’d been saving for later, too, but that wouldn’t be effective if it hadn’t worked the first time, which meant he needed to find something stronger. Maybe pills would work, once he stole his twenty bucks from Five. Of course, knowing Five, he’d paid Klaus already and just hidden the money in Klaus’s room to keep him out of his business.

This whole thing was just annoying. Sure, when he’d been tryingto talk to a ghost, he got nothing. No amount of mocking or yelling would convince dear old dad to deign to show himself to Number Four, because why would he? Klaus wasn’t exactly the favourite. He never had been. He’d squandered his potential.

As if listening to screaming spirits was _potential_.

And, fine, maybe he hadn’t been stone cold sober, but he’d been more sober than usual. Definitely more sober than he was now. Which meant the kid shouldn’t be here.

Klaus pulled up his knees and leaned his forehead against them. He could feel the rough brick digging into his back. He could feel the coldness of the cement beneath him seeping in through his clothes. He couldn’t sense the new ghost, but then again, the new ghost wasn’t making any more noise than Ben. They were both just sitting there. Like two irritating shadows who wouldn’t go away.

Talking to the dead was a shit power. God, he’d trade with Vanya in a heartbeat. Being ordinary would at least bring him silence. Not that he’d wish this on her. Or anyone else. Well, maybe the old man. He deserved the torment. Hopefully he was getting it where he was now.

“Make him go away,” Klaus mumbled. Ben would know he was talking to him. He always did. It’s not like Klaus had a lot of other people to talk to. All his siblings thought he was useless, Ben included, but Ben usually didn’t have anyone else to talk to, either.

“Are you done yet?”

Great. The kid had taken that as an invitation to talk.

“Seriously. I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here.”

If that were true, he’d have scrammed the first time Klaus had made the mistake of engaging with him and said, yeah, sure, fine, he’d do whatever it took the stop the apocalypse. Instead, the kid had just rolled his eyes and said that Klaus needed to mean it or it didn’t count. He’d kept quiet since, maybe waiting for Klaus to change his mind and swear that he did mean it, but Klaus hadn’t bothered because it was clear that the kid wouldn’t have bought it.

Now, Klaus raised his head to meet steely blue eyes. He waved one hand in the vague direction of the entrance to the alley and said, “Then go. Get out of here. Go do whatever it is you do when you aren’t bugging me.”

The little twerp crossed his arms and glared. In the face of what Klaus had seen growing up, it wasn’t even a good glare, even if it was clearly practiced. “Look, I can be a _lot_ more annoying if I need to be. And a heckuva lot less subtle. So why don’t you make it easy on us both and just tell me what the heck it’s going to take to get you to agree to help stop the apocalypse?”

Klaus gave the kid a once over, mostly to annoy him. After all, it had been hours; Klaus knew perfectly well what he looked like. Young, probably hadn’t been much older than what Five looked like right now when he’d died. Standard t-shirt-jean-sneaker combo instead of a stupid uniform, though; nothing that screamed that he hadn’t come from a typical family. Messy hair like he’d just rolled out of bed this morning, never mind died however many years ago. Didn’t seem too out of date, so newish for a ghost, last couple of decades for sure. He was lippy, so used to talking back, but still happy to do whatever assignment he’d been sent on by whoever the hell had decided to make Klaus’s life miserable from the moment of his birth.

“You won’t have enough money on you to get all the drugs I’d need to get through this.”

“Are you kidding me? He says you need to be sober to do anything!” The kid pointed at Ben, and Klaus didn’t need to look at his brother to know there was a smirk on his face. Ben had been trying to get him to sober up for longer than his brief stints in rehab for years.

Klaus couldn’t exactly remember when Ben and the kid had talked, but he’d been too grateful whenever he’d momentarily lost his shadows to wonder about why they’d decided to disappear on him. Dammit, he focused on himself for one bloody second and Ben took the opportunity to get all chummy with another ghost.

The fact that said other ghost knew about the impending apocalypse was no doubt why Ben had decided to talk to him, but still. Just because it was weird, didn’t mean they had to play along. Maybe Five had told someone else. Which didn’t sound like Five, considering Klaus wasn’t sure he’d told the rest of the family yet, but it could’ve been a mistake. Which also didn’t sound like Five.

Most likely, Five wasn’t the only one to know what was coming.

That did not make Klaus more inclined to trust this new dead teenager who apparently had knowledge of their impending doom.

“Five will need help with this even if he won’t ask for it,” Ben pointed out. “It’s the apocalypse, and all he has to go on is that someone is going to lose an eye.”

“All that we know he has to go on,” Klaus muttered. “He doesn’t exactly make a habit of telling us everything.”

“I know the type,” the kid said, “which is why I don’t know what causes this apocalypse, either, but I’d like to live past whatever year this is, so please just help stop it so I can get back to my life.”

“You’re dead.”

“Yeah, and I’ll be more dead if this happens. I’d like to avoid that.”

Klaus glanced back at Ben, but he just shrugged.

“Okay, look,” the kid said, getting to his feet and moving so that he could easily talk to both Ben and Klaus before sitting back down to face them. “This is what I know. The world is going to end in, like, a week. There are a few different ways to prevent that, some of which are way messier than others, but all of those ways involve you guys actually working together.”

“Working together or _being_ together?” Klaus settled back against the wall again and stretched out his legs in front of him. “Because we can’t all work together like old times. Ben’s dead, as you can see, and Vanya never came with us on missions.”

The kid hesitated.

Like hell he’d told them everything he knew.

“Why don’t you actually tell me who you are before you try to tell me I need to go get myself killed in a futile attempt to save the world? Because that is what Five thinks is going to happen or he wouldn’t be shutting everyone out as much as he is.”

The kid pressed his lips into a line and didn’t say anything.

“Right. So why should I listen to you? You don’t know anything. You’re just some random ghost wanting attention.”

The kid rolled his eyes. “You know that’s not true.”

“So prove me wrong. Cough up a name, kid. If I’ve gotta talk to you, I wanna at least know who I’m talking to.”

“Danny.”

“Danny—?” Klaus waved a hand. “C’mon, there’s gotta be more than that.”

“Foley.”

“Uh huh.” The kid was not an experienced liar. At least, he wasn’t a good one. Not looking away when you lie, however briefly, was basic stuff. From Ben’s quiet snort, he’d pegged it, too. “Wanna tell me what you meant about being yanked outta your timeline?”

Danny considered his answer, which wasn’t great for Klaus. Most of what Klaus knew about the afterlife came from Ben, and his was a very limited experience. Klaus didn’t know what was involved in crossing over and coming back or what it was like, after. Ghosts were never talkative on that front. Most of the ones who were still here haunted people or places, and too many of those had snapped, spending too long without someone around who could talk back to them.

It messed with you, too much time alone. It was a wonder Five wasn’t even crazier than he was.

“I’m not from this time,” Danny finally answered. “This is my future, somewhere further up in my own timeline. Or at least what’s my own timeline now, since the last disaster that pretty much destroyed everything has been dealt with.”

He hadn’t really said anything that he hadn’t already admitted. He’d just tried to avoid the question and change the topic, so Klaus wasn’t going to let him. He was not going to admit to the kid how curious that last comment had made him. “So this isn’t the first time you’ve jumped.”

“I’m not like Five. I don’t have that ability. I just know someone who does. Kinda. He opens portals. I went through one.”

“Because—?”

“Because he asked me to? And because I kinda owe him. And because I don’t want the world to end in whatever year this is. When are we? He wouldn’t tell me.”

Like Klaus was going to let this kid control the conversation that easily. He glanced at Ben again. Nothing Danny had said so far had surprised him, so either he’d managed to get it out of the kid before—which might be why he gave it up so easily—or Ben just suspected as much as Klaus did. Klaus didn’t get the impression that Ben was willing to trust Danny too far, but he certainly wanted to hear him out, which was frankly the only reason Klaus was having this conversation.

Ben had always been a better judge of character than he was.

“So what else do you know, Danny-boy? There’s gotta be something juicy you aren’t saying.”

Danny winced. “Can’t you just swear you’ll sober up and help? Please?”

Klaus placed a hand over his heart and said, “I solemnly swear.”

“Yeah, but for real?”

“What, you want me to pinky promise you?”

“He wasn’t out of rehab for twenty minutes before he met up with his dealer,” Ben said flatly. “He started this when we were kids. It’s not going to be that easy to get him to change. I can’t even get him to go to a movie most of the time, let alone do something more interesting.”

Danny frowned at Klaus. “How long does it take to get clean?” Without waiting for an answer, he looked at Ben. “We can switch out overshadowing him.”

Oh, hell no. Klaus could figure out what that meant from the way Danny said it. “No. This body? Right here?” He waved a hand at himself. “This is a temple. You can’t take it out for a little joy ride.”

Danny smirked. “Wanna bet?” He turned back to Ben. “Seriously, if we tag team this, we should be able to do it. Failing that, you overshadow him while I tape him to a chair or something. Maybe lock him in a room somewhere?”

“Stop talking about that like it’s a possibility!”

“Even if I could, scarring him more isn’t going to help us.”

Something about Ben’s words gave Danny pause. Klaus saw it, the way he immediately stilled before sorting his features into a carefully blanked expression. “You were abused as a kid,” he said, apparently too caught up in what should have been an obvious revelation if he knew anything at all about the Umbrella Academy to realize how blunt that statement was. Then, softer, “And I thought I had a messed-up childhood.” He took a deep breath—why the hell was he bothering with that pretense?—before saying, “Okay. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have suggested that. Any of it. I…. I know the sort of people who do awful things and claim it’s for your own good. I don’t want to be like them.”

“Yeah, well.” Klaus wasn’t going to say it was okay. It wasn’t. “Life is messed up.”

“That doesn’t mean it should be over for everyone.”

“I don’t want to die,” Klaus snapped. “That’s not what this is about.”

“Then what is it about?”

“What are you, some freaking psychologist?” Crap. He shouldn’t have lost control. Losing his temper had cost him control of this conversation, and from the look on the kid’s face, they both knew it.

Well. He should be realistic here. They all knew he’d lost control of the conversation. There’s no way this had gotten past Ben. The fact that he wasn’t stepping in to help just meant he agreed with Danny.

Granted, Klaus already knew that. Ben was all for helping to stop the apocalypse. As if there were any way that he could do that. That Klaus could do that. Talking to the dead didn’t help anyone else, except maybe the dead, and the dead were, well, dead. That pretty much limited their interaction with the living to Klaus.

“Let’s just say I picked up a trick or two from my sister.”

No. He was not taking the bait and relinquishing all semblance of control. He’d gotten screwed over enough times to know better than that, at least when he was this coherent. “Listen here, kiddo. I’m the guy who’s flesh and blood here. If anyone has something to lose, it’s me, not you.”

“Then why aren’t you more determined to fight it?”

“Because there’s no point!” Was this kid really going to make him say it? “I’m useless! You know about us, you know about our abilities, so you should already know that. I can’t do anything except hold pointless conversations with ghosts like you. Unless the guy we’re looking for has a ghost attached to him who’s willing to spill some dirt, I’m useless.”

Even on missions, he’d been more valuable when it came to encouraging Ben to do what he’d needed to do than to do anything himself. At best, he could pick up a few juicy tidbits for taunts to unnerve people or distract them while Luther got in a good punch or Diego pulled out his knives. If they’d ever needed someone to tell them what was going on, Allison would just rumour them. Someone who was alive always knew. They hadn’t needed to rely on the dead.

They hadn’t needed to rely on Klaus.

Even now, when they _had_ needed Klaus, had specifically asked him to use his abilities to get information from the dead, he hadn’t been able to deliver. He didn’t have any way to talk to a ghost who didn’t bother showing up to chat. Fat lot of good he did anyone.

“You aren’t useless.”

“Says the dead kid who barely knows me.” Klaus jerked at thumb at Ben. “You should get a second opinion from someone who does.”

He waited for Ben to deny it. He wasn’t terribly hopeful on that front, considering how often Ben complained that he was wasting his life, but he still waited. Instead, Ben just said, “You need to sober up, Klaus. We can’t do anything if you’re too afraid to use your power.”

 _We_. He said it like that was actually a possibility.

“You don’t just talk to ghosts,” Danny said flatly. “You can interact with them. Trust me, that’s a lot more power than you realize. Assuming you can learn to tap into it.”

“Before the world ends, you mean.”

“So the world doesn’t end. And if you give up without even trying, it will.” Danny pursed his lips. “I know what it’s like, having power that you don’t know how to control. And I know what it’s like to try to hide it and push it away and forget about it because you’re scared of it. Even if I don’t know what you’re going through, I can sympathise.”

“Good luck,” Ben murmured. “He’ll never talk to me about that. Or listen.”

“Fine. You don’t want to talk about it. You don’t have to.” Danny climbed to his feet and held out a hand towards Klaus. “Come on, get up.”

Klaus looked at it and then raised an eyebrow. “Did your attempt to have a little heart to heart make you forget that you’re dead?”

“No.”

He didn’t drop his hand.

Klaus just looked at him until he rolled his eyes and held out his other hand toward Ben and shot him a pleading look instead. “C’mon, please?”

As far as Klaus knew, ghosts didn’t like to touch each other. They’d get really close in a crowded spot, but Klaus couldn’t remember them touching each other if they could possibly help it. He’d never really asked Ben about it; he’d simply assumed that it had something to do with the amount of energy that it took for ghosts to manifest on this side. Knocking into another ghost risked disrupting that contained energy, and not all of them were strong enough to hold it together if they were competing for space in this realm.

Not all of them had a strong enough tie to this side to be able to weather it, at least not for very long.

Ben avoided humans as much as he did ghosts, Klaus had noticed. He wasn’t sure if Ben felt some sort of energy loss every time someone walked through him or if he simply hated it on principle. Of course, it might just be the reminder. The fact that he was dead, that no one else could see him or talk to him except for Klaus or other ghosts, that he was stuck here because Klaus had called him back and—

Ben, apparently deciding to play along, reached out one hand. In a fizzle of blue, his fingers slipped through Danny’s.

Strangely, it was only Ben’s form that distorted; Danny’s held steady.

“Try again.”

“Is there a point to this?” Klaus asked.

Danny didn’t bother to look back at him. “Humour me.”

Ben reached out again, and again his hand passed right through Danny’s. And again. And—

Klaus blinked. Danny and Ben were touching, and neither ghost was blurring or sparking at the edges from the contact. Danny pulled Ben to his feet, and then the teen turned back to Klaus, raised his eyebrows, and looked pointedly at his first outstretched hand.

“Okay, fine, whatever,” Klaus said, reaching up and intending to get this charade over with. Maybe then Danny would leave, once he realized that whatever he was trying to do wouldn’t—

Klaus’s fingers caught flesh, as solid and warm as his own. Surprise kept him from resisting when Danny’s grip tightened, and he pulled Klaus to his feet without any obvious strain. “See?” Danny asked. “It’s like I said. You don’t just talk to the dead. You can interact with them—us—and therefore you aren’t useless. You and Ben can work together. Pool your strengths, cover each other’s weaknesses, whatever. Shake on it or something to prove to yourselves that you can.”

Klaus had had a lot of odd interactions with ghosts in the past, and this was definitely up there. He glanced at Ben, but his brother only held up his free hand in a clear offer to be high-fived.

Well.

Klaus couldn’t leave him hanging.

Danny dropped their hands while Klaus looked with wonder at the hand that had connected with Ben’s with a satisfying crack. “Stay sober,” the kid said, slipping back into lecture mode with apparent ease. “I really want to survive this apocalypse.”

“You’re dead,” Klaus said again without looking up, but he couldn’t help but wonder how true that was.

Maybe the kid wasn’t dead after all.

Maybe he was just another one of them, only with an ability eerily like Klaus’s own.

Given Five’s current appearance and Danny’s repeated comments about being out of his own time, it was possible. He’d already admitted to having some kind of power that had scared him, and the way he kept forgetting to count himself among the dead….

“If you’re finally ready to do this,” Ben said, “I’ll help you through it, whether or not you want to involve the others.”

Klaus met his brother’s eyes and offered a weak smile. “Yeah. I think I am ready to do this.” His resolve would not be nearly so great once the withdrawal hit; he’d have to involve someone who would tie him up without questioning him too much. Maybe Diego. Even if Diego did ask, once Klaus tried to explain this, Diego wouldn’t believe him, and that would be the end of the questions.

“Great,” Danny said, with more enthusiasm than Klaus had heard of him yet. He clapped both Ben and Klaus on the back at the same time, and it didn’t even look like he needed to concentrate to do it. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I really hope I don’t have to see you again.”

“Hey, before you run off,” Klaus said as the kid turned to walk away, “are you involved in whatever Five was involved in?” Five had been scant on the details, but Klaus knew he was wrapped up in something. He was not as unobservant as everyone assumed.

Danny turned back. “Them?” he asked, in that infuriating way that confirmed he had not told Klaus half of what he really knew about all of this. “No. I just know someone who’s higher up on the food chain than they are, even if they don’t know it. Like I said, I had a favour to repay.”

“Are you actually a ghost?” He’d been operating on that assumption the entire time, but that had been mostly because the kid could clearly see and hear Ben. He hadn’t paid enough attention earlier to see if anyone _else_ had been able to see the kid besides the two of them. If he simply had powers—

Danny smiled. “Have to be. I’m dead, aren’t I?”


End file.
